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Dear visitors

There is quite a lot that’s new this year. We are delighted to see that the temporary entrance to the Kunsthaus is working well. Downstairs, work on the new cloakrooms and the connection for the passage leading to the extension is in full swing. There’s also been plenty of action in our exhibition programme, with this summer’s performance project drawing a lot of attention; and there’s more to come in the form of ‘cantastorie’. This captivating exhibition of folk art from southern Italy lasts just six short weeks, but is accompanied by a full programme of music and theatre in the very middle of the Bührle gallery, complete with the resonant tones of a fairground organ – definitely one for your diary.

The Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, which purchases works of art and makes them available to the Kunsthaus, is proudly celebrating its centenary this year, and we’ve much to thank them for. As you wander through the collection over the next few weeks, be sure to look out for the labels marking all the works that are on long-term loan to us from the Kunstfreunde, including many masterpieces of Swiss and international art that are a defining element of our profile. We thank them for their generosity – and offer them our best wishes for the next hundred years! If you’d like to become a member, you’ll find lots of information on the revamped Kunstfreunde Zürich website. We hope many more patrons will be motivated to join.

Looking briefly ahead to the coming months: we’ll be adjusting the rhythm of our exhibitions to match visitor numbers, staging a series of shorter projects in our large exhibition gallery as well as medium-sized displays in the collection. First up this autumn is a fascinating presentation on 19th-century French art, including the long-neglected gems of Salon painting. To mark five hundred years of the Reformation, we’ll be picking out some relevant works from our collections and offering up a few provocative theses of our own. Next year we look forward to ‘Fashion Drive’, exploring extreme fashion in art from the Middle Ages to the present day; Robert Delaunay and his time in Paris; the large installation by Abraham Cruzvillegas; and the long-awaited retrospective on Oskar Kokoschka. If you’re already a member of the Zürcher Kunstgesellschaft, don’t forget to renew your membership; and if you aren’t – now’s the time to enter our wonderful world of art!